|
|
|
"If
the degradation of Maasailand is allowed to continue,
one of the last homes for the wild African elephant,
wild rhinoceros, cheetah, leopard and giraffe will disappear." |
Today,
Maasailand in Kenya and Tanzania is one of the last great wildlife
refuges in the world. The Maasai Mara-Serengeti ecosystem
supports the highest concentration of wildlife on Earth. Encompassing
the cross-border region of the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya
and the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, this land is the
native home of such noble animals as the lion, the elephant,
the rhinoceros, the cheetah, the giraffe and the roan antelope.
Maasai territories provide habitat for 80 percent of East
Africa's wildlife.
|
 Today,
the wildlife of Maasailand is threatened by poaching and the
destruction of habitat. Poaching and trophy hunting have claimed
92% of the rhinoceros and 70% of the elephant population. The
region's popularity as a tourist destination is growing, and large-scale
tourist facilities are being built in pristine areas. Habitat
is also being lost to large-scale agriculture and commercial development.
Population pressures from the surrounding regions of Eastern Africa
are further distressing the land and its resources. Traditional
migratory routes for wildlife are being lost, as indiscriminate
development fragments Maasailand. All of these pressures, plus
pollution associated with the tourism industry and illegal bush
meat trade, are bearing instantaneous and irreversible impacts
on the wildlife of Maasailand. |
 "We,
the guardians of wildlife, understand our moral and cultural
obligation to protect and preserve wildlife and environment
in our territories. Creation, as in nature, symbolizes the bond
between us and our creator."
— speaker at All Maasai Conference, Arusha Tanzania, 1994
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2001, MERC Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition.
All rights reserved.
Copyright
© 2001, Photographs by Wildland Adventures Inc. and Lorne
Sulcas.
This site was designed in a group effort by LWTC students,
Jill Hayes, Jennifer Chong,
Branden Casper, and Ruth MacDonald-Schmidt under the guidance
of Krista Jensen.
|
|
|
